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LANSING — Former Flint Mayor James Sharp Jr., who had his own experience with contaminated water while stationed as a U.S. Marine at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina, is calling for federal investigations into the Flint water controversy and a more comprehensive outreach effort to contact and test those who may have drank water containing unsafe levels of lead.

A spokeswoman for the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, Angela Minicuci, said the state is already cooperating with a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency investigation but would assist with any other federal investigations, should they be opened. State officials believe they are following up appropriately with those potentially exposed to water with high lead levels, Minicuci said Thursday.

Sharp, who was Flint mayor in 1983-87, was stationed at Camp Lejeune in the 1950s, where it was later determined drinking water was contaminated with cancer-causing chemicals such as the dry cleaning fluid perchloroethylene.

The 82-year-old Democrat, now retired and living in Arizona, told the Free Press in an interview Wednesday that four of his five children lived on the base for a time. A daughter who was born there and died at the age of 2 months and his first wife, Jean, who died in her 30s, may have been victims of the toxins, he said.

Former Flint Mayor James Sharp, photographed during his time as mayor.(Photo: Detroit Free Press)

Sharp said after learning of the contamination in the 1980s, officials created a database and contacted him and thousands of others who may have drank the water.

In 2012, President Barack Obama signed federal legislation providing medical care to those who drank the Camp Lejeune water.

Similar actions, along with investigations by the U.S. Justice Department and FBI, need to be taken in response to the situation in Flint, Sharp said.

"Someone needs to be thinking about the future implications of this lead, as was the case with the Marines at Camp Lejeune," Sharp said. "I don't see that happening in this situation, and I'm very upset about it."

Flint was under a state-appointed emergency manager in 2013 when the manager -- with the support of the City Council -- opted to split with the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department, which had been supplying the city with drinking water from Lake Huron, and join the Karegnondi Water Authority (KWA), which is building a new pipeline to Lake Huron. As a cost-cutting measure, the emergency manager -- with the backing of the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality -- opted to draw and treat water from the Flint River while waiting for the new pipeline to be completed, after Flint and Detroit couldn't agree to an interim supply price.

Flint began drawing its water from the river in April 2014 and almost immediately faced complaints from residents about the water's taste, smell and appearance. Tests later showed elevated levels of lead in the water and in children's blood, and the state acknowledged that failure to take proper steps to make the river water less corrosive had resulted in lead leaching into the water from old pipes and fittings.

High lead levels can cause irreversible brain damage, particularly in children.

After a public outcry, Gov. Rick Snyder and the Legislature approved partial funding for Flint to reconnect to DWSD while it awaits the completion of the KWA. That reconnection to Detroit-supplied water happened Oct. 16. Snyder, whose administration had initially downplayed and even scoffed at concerns about lead in the water, appointed a task force in October to investigate what went wrong. That report is pending.

Sharp said the task force appointed is not sufficient and he thinks the U.S. Justice Department should investigate civil rights violations and the FBI should determine whether any crimes were committed.

"We can't allow these people to investigate themselves," he said, and "what we need to do first and foremost is to protect the people who drank the water."

Minicuci said what happened at Camp Lejeune and the situation in Flint "involve two very different sets of circumstances."

The state "has been providing elevated blood-lead level investigations in Flint and doing case management for families when an elevated blood-lead level is detected," and is "working closely with our community partners at the local health department and health plans to conduct testing." she said.

"As there can be exposure to lead in a variety of ways, not just water, we believe that the current effort through follow-up with nurses is the best approach for identifying and reducing exposures to lead in the community as a whole."

As for investigations, "we’re working already with the federal government at the Environmental Protection Agency on their investigation as well as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for their support," Minicuci said. "If the U.S. Justice Department or FBI were interested in investigating this issue, we would cooperate and assist as we can."

Sharp said a fund should be established to compensate those who have suffered or will suffer adverse affects from drinking the Flint River water.

Sharp said he and his family regularly receive communications about the Camp Lejeune situation and were recently sent a list of diseases that could be linked to the water problems at the base.